German Parliament Gets Bill Urging Resignation of Ex-nazi Judges

The legal committee of West Germany’s Bundestag, the Lower House of Parliament, today proposed a bill calling upon all judges and prosecutors, who served in the Nazi judicial apparatus in cases that ended in the death penalty, to resign “voluntarily” within one year.

According to the framers of the measure, there are 72 judges and state prosecutors in the West German judiciary now who were involved, during the Hitler era, in court cases that ended in the death penalty for those accused by the Nazi regime. The draft will be brought up before the Bundestag next week.

Meanwhile, a constitutional amendment was being prepared here for introduction in Parliament after next September’s general elections, authorizing more stringent, punitive action against all judges and state prosecutors found to have shared responsibility in any inhuman Nazi death sentence. Under the amendment, members of the judiciary thus found guilty of responsibility will be dismissed without pensions, and will have to face trial.